Mid-June.
Ginza, Chuo Ward, Tokyo.
Tokyo's rainy season is always long and damp, like an endless bead curtain shrouding this bustling commercial street — the most expensive land in Japan.
Inside a high-end ryotei tucked deep in Ginza, understated on the outside.
The air was dry and warm.
In a brass brazier in the corner, top-grade Binchotan charcoal burned silently. Dark-red sparks flickered at the ash edges, giving off a faint woody scent.
Watanabe Yoshinori, fifth-generation kumicho of the Yamaguchi-gumi and overlord of the Kansai underworld, sat upright on the thick tatami.
He wore a tailored dark Italian suit with a subtle pattern. A gold Patek Philippe was on his wrist.
In appearance, he looked no different from the zaibatsu executives who filled Marunouchi's office towers.
Across from him sat Hoshino, core leader of Sumiyoshi-kai, Kanto's largest underworld organization.
Hoshino also wore a suit.
He leaned forward slightly and lifted a purple clay teapot with textbook precision.
Boiling tea formed a perfect arc as he poured hot Gyokuro into the celadon cup in front of Watanabe.
Emerald-green tea swirled, releasing a wisp of steam.
"Mr. Watanabe, please."
Hoshino set the pot down, placed his hands flat on his knees, and bowed slightly.
Watanabe picked up the cup and blew lightly on the floating leaves.
He didn't drink. His eyes went through the steam to Hoshino's face, still holding its humble expression.
"Brother Hoshino. This rain these days is irritating."
Watanabe's voice was low, thick with Kansai accent.
"President Isao Nakauchi of Daiei Group called me personally a few days ago."
He set the cup back on the coaster. "Department Store recently set its sights on several bankrupt commercial properties in Kanto slated for renovation.
I hear a few financial consulting firms under your organization happen to be handling legacy debt disputes in those properties."
Hoshino's eyelids twitched once.
He kept his upright posture and listened.
"We're all in business. Harmony brings wealth."
Watanabe tapped the edge of the rosewood low table twice with his fingers. "Brother Nakauchi is willing to wire 500 million yen to Kansai headquarters as tea money for the Kanto brothers.
I hope your organization can do a favor, pull the men out of the shops, and let the Department Store construction teams enter."
500 million yen cash.
By underworld rules, that was a high price to buy a withdrawal.
Watanabe taking this request personally wasn't just about underworld friendship with Isao Nakauchi.
After the Ministry of Finance's "total volume regulation," Kanto credit gates were welded shut.
The Yamaguchi-gumi's shell companies and real estate investment vehicles faced frantic loan recalls from major banks.
The organization's liquidity was drying up visibly.
For the Yamaguchi-gumi right now, 500 million yen cash was also life-saving money to plug short-term interest holes.
The tea room went quiet.
The charcoal in the brazier popped once, faintly.
Hoshino looked up, meeting Watanabe's gaze.
His face kept that junior's respectful smile, but a cold hardness showed in his eyes.
"Mr. Watanabe."
Hoshino's voice was calm, with a precise note of apology.
"President Nakauchi of Daiei Group is indeed a respected senior in the underworld.
Since you've personally stepped in, Kanto should yield this path immediately."
Hoshino swallowed.
"However… I'm terribly sorry."
He bowed deep, hands pressed to his thighs.
"The brothers in Kanto… cannot withdraw this time."
Watanabe's fingers stopped tapping the table.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, staring at the Kanto local boss bowing in apology.
"Is 500 million yen tea money not enough for the brothers?"
Watanabe's tone turned cold.
Hoshino didn't defend himself immediately.
He kept the deep bow, then turned his head slightly and gave a low order toward the closed shoji door.
"Bring it in."
The wooden door slid open silently.
A wakagashira assistant in a black suit walked in fast, carrying a heavy black briefcase.
He knelt beside Hoshino, unzipped it, took out a thick stack of documents, set them respectfully on the low table, and withdrew.
Hoshino reached out with both hands and pushed the stack toward Watanabe.
"Mr. Watanabe. Please look."
Watanabe lowered his eyes.
On top was a bright red "Notice of Mandatory Seizure and Account Freezing" from Tokyo Credit Union.
Bold black text stood out: "Notice of Mandatory Seizure and Account Freezing."
Hoshino's chest rose slightly. His voice stayed low.
"At eight this morning. Our largest front real estate company in Shinjuku Ward was sealed directly by credit union staff with court bailiffs.
The 3 billion yen in cash the organization had invested, plus settlement money for hundreds of brothers, became dead numbers instantly."
He pointed to the stack of dozens of notices.
"These. All collection letters major Kanto banks sent to our offices and finance companies this morning.
The branch managers who drank hundreds of thousands of yen of foreign liquor with us yesterday afternoon, who pounded their chests saying funds were fine — they turned today, brought police, and locked our basic accounts."
Hoshino slowly straightened.
"Mr. Watanabe, this isn't about appetite.
This is about whether we survive."
Hoshino took a breath. To get through today, he had to tear his wounds open.
"After the Ministry of Finance issued 'total volume regulation,' it didn't just cut off surface-level real estate developers.
Those high-and-mighty city banks, to meet Kasumigaseki audit targets, are clawing back loans from 'Jusen' — housing loan companies."
"If Jusen can't fill the holes, the fire burns straight into the underground.
The financial section chiefs who usually beg us at drinking parties to lend them funds to boost performance — they're bringing legal counsel and debt collectors to block private finance firms across Kanto every day.
They hold contracts, forcing us to immediately settle all bridge funds and interest that snowballed.
They even threaten to use Metropolitan Police connections to seize our core assets."
Hoshino looked straight at Watanabe, coarse red veins in his eyes.
"Over the past years, to acquire land and do usury, the organization's foundation ran on Jusen's short-term borrowing and long-term investment.
Now the upstream blood supply stopped. The bottom funding chain is completely broken."
"Once Jusen starts legal enforcement to apply for account freezing, dozens of shell companies under the Kanto banner registered as financial consulting firms will enter bankruptcy liquidation next week."
"At that point, thousands of brothers lose legal cover, and we can't even withdraw cash to pay subordinates' settlement money."
Hoshino's mouth pulled into a bitter smile.
"Does President Nakauchi of Department Store think 500 million yen tea money can buy face?
Mr. Watanabe, 500 million yen doesn't cover the default penalties due next week for a few of our core companies.
If we withdraw from those shops now for this pittance, thousands of brothers below will be forced by the credit union to jump into Tokyo Bay tomorrow because they can't repay debts."
"At that point, the organization ceases to exist."
"Since Daiei Group is so eager to expand.
Since they dare to take on this batch of toxic land."
Hoshino's hands slowly clenched into fists on his knees.
"They must pay full original price.
Principal and interest, they must pay 100% of those billions in 'relocation settlement money' — tachinoki-ryo."
"If they're short even one yen, we will not walk out of that door."
Rain beat densely against the wooden window lattice outside, pattering continuously.
Watanabe looked at Hoshino's face, full of resolve.
He quietly picked up the celadon teacup, fingertips brushing the cold wall.
They were desperate, but wasn't he in the same boat?
The Ministry of Finance loan cutoff was also choking Kansai headquarters.
Deficit collection reports for his subsidiaries had been hitting his desk daily. Equally shocking.
Everyone was struggling in the same avalanche.
At the life-or-death moment of bankruptcy liquidation, an underworld senior's face couldn't buy a single 10,000-yen note from the bank.
If he were in Hoshino's position, facing that 500 million yen tea money, he'd make the same refusal.
He drank the lukewarm tea in one gulp.
He set the cup down, turned his head, and looked through the half-closed shoji at the expensive plants in the courtyard, scattered by wind and rain.
"Over the past years.
Everyone's been living in a dream."
Watanabe's voice carried deep exhaustion and self-mockery.
"Buttoning our shirt collars tight, putting on British-tailored suits, thinking we could cover the tattoos underneath…
Running to Karuizawa greens to chat, laugh, swing golf clubs with those high-and-mighty bank directors.
Drinking foreign liquor worth hundreds of thousands of yen per bottle in Ginza private rooms, signing a name casually, and billions of yen moved."
He lowered his head and looked at the blinding Patek Philippe on his wrist.
"Looking at those countless zeros in our accounts… even we started to believe it.
We really thought that by putting on expensive shoes, the mud on our soles was washed clean, and we'd become some kind of respected upper-class zaibatsu."
Watanabe took off his watch and tossed it casually onto the rosewood low table.
"Those bureaucrats at the Ministry of Finance, with a flick of their pens, stripped this gorgeous skin right off."
Watanabe looked at the gold watch on the table, voice turning cold.
"Once the banks cut food, people like us… have to crawl back into dark sewers and fight rats for scraps."
Hoshino listened to the Kansai overlord's sigh and nodded deeply.
"Yes… those good days where we could extract billions from banks with two contracts and flipping land are over."
Hoshino straightened.
The humble posture for apology was gone. The ruthlessness of a Kanto local boss returned.
"Mr. Watanabe. What follows is an economic winter that freezes bone."
Hoshino looked directly at the other man.
"Since the banks won't feed us, to survive, we have no choice but to take off these cumbersome suits and go back to dirty work that can't see light."
He leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice.
"Tokyo is full of unlucky people going bankrupt from loan cutoffs.
Those zaibatsu bosses are desperate to clear unfinished commercial properties for cash… this is fat meat delivered to our door."
"We can find a few brothers, lay broken straw mats in those empty bankrupt shops, forge a rental contract from years ago and move in."
The corners of Hoshino's mouth curled into a bloodthirsty arc.
"Anyway, Japanese law protects 'vulnerable tenants.'
Those high-and-mighty zaibatsu want to kick us out? Sure, bring hard cash as 'relocation settlement money' to trade.
If they won't pay… let them take court mediation documents and wait three to five years.
They're more short on time than we are right now."
Watanabe listened quietly, eyes flickering.
Hoshino stared at Watanabe, knowing it landed, and pressed.
"Come to think of it… since President Isao Nakauchi can pull out 500 million cash without blinking to buy face from you, that shows Department Store's cash flow is already very tight.
They urgently need new stores open to generate turnover to cover losses."
"Daiei Group is now… just a fat pig running blind in the snow, bleeding profusely."
Hoshino lowered his voice.
"Mr. Watanabe.
The brothers in Kansai are also tight on cash right now.
Why don't you take this chance… and return that 500 million tea fee to him?
Instead, use your organization's territorial advantage in Kansai to take a huge, bloody bite out of this fat pig, Department Store?"
Watanabe looked quietly at the expensive gold watch on the table.
The tea room was quiet for a few seconds.
He reached out his rough right hand and picked up the Patek Philippe he'd just tossed away.
The cold pure gold strap touched his warm wrist.
He slowly, deliberately fastened the clasp.
Click.
The faint metal click echoed in the quiet tea room.
Compared to a bleeding fat pig, 500 million yen tea money was indeed too light.
Isao Nakauchi's so-called underworld face couldn't fill the stomachs of thousands of brothers below.
Watanabe looked up.
Deep in those slightly cloudy old eyes, the hesitation was gone. Replaced by greed identical to Hoshino's.
"Brother Hoshino."
Watanabe picked up the cup with no tea, raised it slightly toward the Kanto local boss across, and the corners of his mouth curled into a dangerous arc.
"Since the winter wind and snow are so heavy.
The brothers in Kansai, naturally, should also go out and find some food."